Whirlpool Corp.
Where: 1701 KitchenAid Way, Greenville.
Employs: About 750 full-time and 250 part-time workers.
Produces: KitchenAid stand mixer, as well as KitchenAid hand mixers, blenders and attachments.
Greenville appliance-maker Whirlpool Corp. — hailed in recent years for bringing jobs from China to the Dayton region — will hire 400 additional workers and invest $40 million in its area plant, the Dayton Development Coalition confirmed today.
The company will spend $40 million to expand the plant to 460,000 square feet from 260,000 square feet, said Dave Elliott, general manager of Whirlpool’s KitchenAid small appliances business, in a story by the Wall Street Journal. Employment at the plant is expected to rise to about 1,400 in 2018 from 1,000 now, the Journal reported late Thursday.
The coalition confirmed the news with its own announcement early Friday.
“The Dayton region continues its winning streak and a strong start to 2014 with another 400 jobs being commited by Whirlpool,” Jeff Hoagland, the coalition’s president and chief executive, said in the organization’s statement.
The company will hold a press conference at its KitchenAid Way facility with Greenville Mayor Mike Bowers and Ken Hossler, plant leader. Gov. John Kasich was expected to be on hand, as well. Further details are expected there.
The Whirlpool plant, located an hour from Dayton off U.S. 127, makes kitchen stand mixers, hand mixers, blenders and small appliances.
The plant employs around 1,000 full- and part-time employees today.
In 2012, Whirlpool received national attention for moving jobs from China to Greenville. The company returned to the U.S. production of KitchenAid hand mixers, which for six years previously had been made by a contractor in Huizhou, China.
In a 2012 interview, Hossler told the Dayton Daily News that his Greenville workforce was eager to compete.
“Greenville is hungry,” Hossler said then. “We are continually looking for new opportunities. We want to make sure we are a viable solution.”
Whirlpool cut about 5,000 jobs and closed a Fort Smith, Ark. plant in fall 2011 after experiencing what it called soft demand and high materials costs. But less than two months later, the company announced plans to expand the Greenville plant.
In 2011, Whirlpool received a 45 percent, five-year Ohio tax credit for the creation of $2.2 million in additional payroll at its Greenville plant.
As part of the tax credit agreement, Ohio government required Whirlpool to maintain operations in Greenville for at least eight years. The company said then it would create 65 full-time jobs at the time.
The new jobs were to be added at an annual payroll of $2,237,560, with 636 jobs being retained at a payroll of $22,295,286 and an expected investment by the company of $340,000, according to state officials.
The company has four other Ohio plants in Clyde, Findlay, Ottawa and Marion.
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